John thomson



(No Model.)

J. THGMSON.

DIFFERENTIAL REGISTER.

,674. Patented`.Ma.r.27, 1883.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OEETCE.

JOHN THOMSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEWT YORK, ASSIGNOB TO MARIA T.

BARTON, OF SAME PLAGE.

DIFFERENTIAL REGISTER. y'

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters :Patent No. 274,674, dated March 27, 1883.

Application tiled August 28, 1882.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN THOMSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Differential Registers, ot' which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus adapted to eect registration for all purposes, and for usev in all places in which registers are employed, said apparatus being` cheap and simple in. construction, and att'ording a reliable register which can be easily read, and which shall indicate the highest desired reading for any purpose.

To this end my invention consists in a toothed dial-wheel rotating under a fixed indicator by which the unitary notation is effeeted, a follower-wheel rotating upon the same axis, but differentially toothed, and carrying an indicator-hand over the dial, which registers sums of one hundred units, and a third indicator, also carried over the said dial, actuated by a disk rotating with the followerwheel, and having a single notch into which a pawl carried by said follower-wheel falls each time the dial gains one complete rotation upon the follower-wheel, and advances said. disk one tooth before it is withdrawn from engagementtherewith, whereby sums ci' ten thousand u nits each are registered.

My invention inally consists in several details of construction, which will be fully described hereinafter, and then pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a front elevation. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Fig. Bis a detail view ot' the follower-wheel, with the blind-wheel and ratchet-wheel with pawl. Fig. tis a detail view of the dial-wheel, with modied devices for imparting movement thereto. Fig. 5 is a central section of Fig. l, the parts being enlarged and broken off attop and bottom. Fig. 6 is a central transverse section of Fig. 3.

In theconst-ruction of this apparatus, l is a A dial-wheel provided with a graduated annulus which has onehundred equal graduations marked thereon. The periphery of said dialwheel is provided with one hundred teeth ot' (No model.)

equal pitch, which are adapted to engage with a worm, 3, mounted in bearings 19 and 20, so that it may be revolved freely and thereby impart a slow and regular rotation to the dialwheel. rThe latter is supported upon a central shaft or stud bearing, 13, and rotates beneath a iiXed hand or pointer, 4, by which registration from l to 99 is indicated.

Behind the dial-wheel, and supported by the same bearing, but having upon its periphery one hundred and one teeth of equal pitch with the teeth on wheel 1, isthe follower-wheel 2, both of which mesh with the worm Now, itis evidentthatifthe worin-shaft 3 is rotatedas, for instance, by a ratchet and pawl-it will rotate the dial-wheel l and the follower-wheel 2 in the same direction; but as the followerwheel has one more tooth than the dial-wheel it is plain that as both are turned by the same worm the dial will gain upon the follower one tooth in each revolution. Thus the dial will, by passing under the hand el, toward the left hand or" Fig. 1, register one with said hand foreach turn of the worm, and after one hundred turns of said worm 3 it will stand at the Zero-point, as indicated by said Fig. l otl the drawings; but in the same time the follower-wheel 2 has been rotated by the same worm, but at each revolution thereot` the dial gains upon it by the space ot' one tooth, during a single revolution of the said dial.

By reference to Fig. 5'v it will he seen that the follower-wheel 2 is mounted rigidly upon a sleeve, l2, on the bearing 13, and to the outer end or' said sleeve is secured a hand or pointer, G, which travelswith said sleeve. The dial moves under this hand, and as the -iormer gains a single tooth upon the follower 2 it will be seen that in a single revolution of the dial the hand 6 will be removed one units space toward the right ou the graduate. This hand registers sums of one hundred, and will therefore, in connection with the indicator 4, register up to and including ninety-nine such sums, together with ninety-nine units registered by the hand 4; or, in other words, a sum of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine units, which is their utmost limit. The next step is to advance these readings by separate indications ot ten thousand units each. To effect ICG register-readings from ten thousand up to one million, or in that vicinity, ordinarily requires considerable and complicated mechanism; but by my invention 'this is accomplished in the following manner. The mechanism is as follows:

To the inside of the dial-wheel is secured a disk or blind-wheel,7,in the periphery of which is formed a single notch, 8, both dial and blindwheel being secured together to turn as one.

Between this blind-wheel and the followerwheel 2 is placed a spring-washer, 9, and a ratchet-wheel, 10, is placed between it and the follower 2. The periphery of the ratchet 10is divided into one hundred equal teeth, and the wheel itself is slightly less in diameter than the blind-wheel, as seen in Fig. 2. This ratchet-wheel is rigidly mounted upon a sleeve, 11, which rotates upon the sleeve 12, as shown in Fig. 5, and upon the outer extremity of said sleeve is mounted rigidly a hand or pointer, 14, turning with said sleeve and ratchet-wh eel. As the dial-wheel and blind-wheel rotate upon but not with the sleeve 11, the spring-washer 9 tends to keep them apart from the ratchetwheel, and also creates suicient frietional resistance to prevent movement upon the part of the ratchet-wheel, except as it is actuated by the mechanism.

Upon the inside face of the followerwheel 2 is pivoted a pawl, 15, actuated by a light spring, which turns it down. The point of this pawl rides upon the periphery of the blind-wheel 7, which is of somewhat greater diameter than the ratchet-wheel 10. Now, it will be remembered that the consequence ofthe differential movement of the dial and the follower-wheel is that for each revolution of the dial it gains one-hundredth part of a revolution on the follower 2, and it will therefore require ninety-nine rotations of the dial-wheel before the pawl 15 will reach the notch 8 in the blind-wheel. The hand 14 meantime travels with the dial undisturbed; but at the ninetyninth revolution the pawl will reach the notch, will be sprung down into it, and thereby into engagement with a tooth in the ratchet-wheel 10, and during the one hundredth revolution it will give the said ratchet, and thereby the hand 14, a relative movement of one one-hundredth of a revolution, at the end of which the pawl 15 will be drawn out of engagement with the ratchet-wheel 10 by riding up on the inclined edge of the notch 8. During its engagement it will have caused the hand 14: to

register a single space upon the graduate; but as said hand registers only sums of ten thousand units each 'this space will indicate such a registration. The pawl will not again engage with the notch 8 until a second series of ninetynine revolutions of the dial l have been accomplished, when the operation just described will be repeated, and a second sum of ten thousand will be registered, and this may be continued until the registration reaches a final sum of nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine units.

The method of forming the dial is shown in Fig. 6. The dial-wheel, which is stamped out by a die, is also made with an annular recess, 16, stamped or otherwise formed in its face. I then print, stamp, or mark in any suitable manner the necessary graduations upon an annulus of such dimensions as to exactly till the recess inthe dial-wheel. This annulus is formed of any suitable materialsuch as paper, celluloid,rubber, &c.-and is inserted and secured within the recess, the proper relative position thereof being indicated by a register point stamped on the wheel and printed on the annular dial. This forms a cheap but perfect dial hush with the face of the wheel, thereby permitting the hands to lie close to the graduations, thereby reducing the liability of error in reading.

Should it be desired (as it frequently is) to reset all the hands at Zero, this may be readily effected by loosening the screw 17, when the slot 18 of worm-bearing 19 and the pivoted bearing 20 will permit the worm to be withdrawn from mesh with the wheels 1 and 2, when the hands 6 and 14 and the dial (the latter with relation to the stationary hand 4t) may be instantly reset, as required, after which the worm may be reset to engage, as before.

The blind-wheel 7, though shown as separate and distinct, may be stamped in the dialwheel 1, and the notch formed therein in a manner analogous to that shown and described for forming the recess 16 for holding the dialgraduate. By such a construction the whole number of wheels would be reduced to three.

The worm 3 is thought to be the .construction best adapted for meters where a number of strokes may be required to register a single volume. The proper rotation of the screw would then be determined by the ratchet-connection to the worm, which latter forms no necessary part of my invention, and is not therefore shown; but where a single stroke should be correspondingly registered by an indication of one unit on the dial, I substitute for the worm a direct pawl-connection, such as that shown in Fig. 4. Said pawl is shown at 21, and is mounted upon a vibrating lever or pivoted pawl-carrier, 22, pivoted upon the same center on which the dial revolves. In this form of construction a safety-pawl, 23, may also be pivoted to the base 5. The operation in this instance is the same as that already described, except that each movement of the lever 22 causes an indication of one upon the dial. The machine is also simplified thereby.

Of course the proportions herein given may be changed to suit varying purposes. For example, the dial might be made to read 10, 500, or 1,000, instead of 100.

In my invention all the parts may be made of stampedmetal, the work of assembling the register being very simple, in consequence of the arrangement ofthe small number and simplicity of the parts.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is IOO l. A register indicating measurements of units and sums of units, said indication being effected forfsingle units by a rotating dial passing under a xed hand, as to sums of one hundred units each by a hand rotating over said disk, but retarded by a differentiallytoothed wheel meshing with the same motor as the dial, and as to sums of ten thousand units each by a hand actuated by a ratchet and pawl, the latter carried by the differentiallytoothed wheel and the former by the dialwheel, or a wheel rotating with it and provided with a single notch, said pawl being held out of engagement with said ratch etuntilit reaches the notch, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with the rotating dial, of the differentiallytoothed follower wheel, the ratchetwheel interposed between ablindwheel or equivalent device, having a single notch and rotating with said dial, next the JOHN THOMSON.

Witnesses:

CHARLES C. BARTON, JOHN A. MILLIKEN. 

